“Never. You’re overwhelmed, and that’s on me, little lady. I swear. This is all on me, not you.”
I backed us up to my bench and sat down, dragging her into my lap, and the whole time, I knew I was pushing her fucking boundaries, but it felt like it was the right thing to do. For her. Not push her boundaries, obviously, but offer her comfort. Comfort she was willingly accepting.
I stroked her back gently, resting my chin on her head as her trembling slowly eased off, and that was going to be the danger point, because the second she came out of whatever this panicked state was, she was going to realise she was in my lap, and freak out again.
“Shh… it’s okay. You’re safe, just like I promised. They’re just mouthy fuckers, and should know better than to act like that in front of a lady.”
Movement that I saw from the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I saw Jamie peeking around the side wall at me.
She mouthed the words ‘is she okay’ and I did my best to signal how little I fucking knew with just my face, because I wasn’t about to disturb this little lady right now. She didn’t seem to mind me calling her that, and I only did it because she was so sweet and petite that I couldn’t help it.
Jamie nodded at me, and disappeared again, and I kept my focus on the soft little woman in my lap, who was no longer shaking so badly, and was probably right about to hit the awareness phase and punch me in the balls.
Caroline
HE SMELLED SO GOOD. Familiar. Safe. The smells that made this shop feel like a welcoming place were all him, as it turned out. The scents of oil and leather came from him, and he wasn’t even wearing any leather, so I figured it was his cologne or something. His token scent had been grounding me, just like his arms had offered warmth and strength, while displaying just how much of the latter he had.
I was in his lap. That fact was starting to permeate my brain, now that it was starting to come back online, and I knew it was inappropriate, I knew I shouldn’t be doing it, but I couldn’t help myself. For the moment, I felt safer than I ever had before, and I didn’t want to ruin that.
“You back with me, little lady?” Harley murmured softly, sending a little tremor of delight through me, because his name for me made me feel small and protected.
“Yeah,” I whispered, “and I seem to be in your lap.”
Harley chuckled, pressing his face against my hair as he squeezed me a little tighter.
“Sorry about that. I didn’t know what else to do. I know you have boundaries, and I just probably breached most of them.”
I shook my head, keeping my face pressed against his warm chest, because maybe that was where the feeling of safety came from. That steady heartbeat, the warmth, the aroma, just everything about him said to me that I was safe with him. Protected. He was nothing like those other men in there, or any men I’d ever met. He felt me tense up at that thought, and sighed softly.
“Are you gonna make me let you go now?” The way he said it, the reluctance in his voice, the way his arms didn’t soften at all, told me just how much he wanted to keep holding me. Somehow that was all I wanted too.
“No.” I felt him freeze for a moment, then a surprised breath huffed out.
“See? You’re amazing, and so strong.” I opened my mouth to argue, but that’s when I felt it. A soft press of his lips to my forehead. He kissed me. It wasn’t something he was taking from me. He was giving me something. Soft, tender, comforting. It seemed to soothe my soul, and I relaxed further in his arms. Nothing could ever make me want to leave the security of his embrace. Ever.
“Almost time for Church, man. You wanna pick this up after that?” Church? I had no idea any of them were religious, but maybe that meant I had nothing to fear from them after all. Church people couldn’t be bad people, right? Harley tensed for a moment.
“We’ll lock up, and I’ll follow you down there. Sorry, man, we called you down here for nothing.”
The other guy laughed. “Nah. It’s all good. While you were off gallivanting, and before Rocket had a hissy fit, we checked out your existing system, and talked through some protective measures. I’ll have a plan for you tomorrow.”
The sounds slowly died off, and then it was just us, alone. The roar of motorcycles outside was comforting. A familiar sound. Something that always calmed me, because I could free my mind while I rode. So what if my motorcycle had had to be altered to suit my smaller stature? So what if I silently struggled with the weight of it, when I climbed back off after riding? It was a small price to pay for everything it gave me.
“You have to go?” I asked Harley, finally lifting my head to look him in the eye, and after the closeness of our little moment here, I found it bizarrely easy to do.
He smiled at me, reaching up to push my hair away from my eye with the gentlest touch possible.
“Only when you feel safe to ride back home, little lady. Nothing’s more important than that.”
There was no awkwardness as we finally got up from that bench, and his warmth left me as we separated, and more than making sure I was safe to ride, he even followed me home, and waited as I parked up and went inside. What a gentleman. He was nothing like those other men who were in his shop today. He wasn’t loud or aggressive. He wasn’t threatening or scary. He was just… Harley.
Chapter Eight
IWAS THE LAST one to step inside the meeting room we used for Church. I took my usual seat beside Micro, who rolled his eyes at me.
“Nice of you to show up, man.” There really couldn’t have been a worse time for me to show up late, could there? I mean, it was literally about a minute and a half, but I still wanted to kick my own ass for it.
“He was probably riding his bird before he came in,” Rocket said with a smirk, and I shot him a glare that I hope said everything I’d do to his fucking face, if he spoke about her like that again.
